MCM Voices Newsletter: Volume 1 Number 9

MCM Voices Newsletter
Volume I No. 9 - October 2007

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Terracycle Settles. To follow up on last month's story: In the case of David vs. Goliath, the two companies settled out of court and Terracycle agreed to remove claims of superiority on their label and to change the yellow and green colors that Scotts Miracle-Gro claimed were so confusing to customers who thought they were buying the synthetic stuff and actually getting the organic product. They also agreed to remove the "suedbyscotts" link from their website in due course. The downside - the evil giant bullied the little guy once again. The upside - the tiny environmentally conscious company gets to stay in business and continue to do good works.

New equipment on the way. I do hope this is the last upgrade for a while - a John Hardy M-1 microphone preamp will be joining the staff at MCM Voices' studio. John Hardy is a one-man operation, so it may take a few weeks to arrive. Among the comments about the M-1 reported on the company's website: "Even the producer could tell the difference!"
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MCM News
a few highlights

The New York State Department of Public Health is targeting second-hand smoke and its effect on children. I was pleased to visit the beautiful Cotton Hill Studios in Albany, NY last month to voice the PSA for this campaign. The TV footage is very powerful indeed - I will post a link next month if I can.

Electric Heart at the Berkshire Museum - this weekend! A great opportunity to visit the Berkshires and see fall colors along the way. Electric Heart documents the life and art of virtuoso jazz trumpeter Don Ellis. John Vizzusi produced the documentary, which I narrated. Check it out at the 291-seat Little Theater at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA, this Saturday 6 October 2007 at 2 pm. Tickets are $5 for museum members, $7 for non-members. I will be there with my family so if you see two handsome identical twin 13-year old boys I'm undoubtedly nearby. Please look for us and introduce yourself!

A month to be grateful. In looking back over the books for September I'm amazed to see how much work there was from returning clients. I feel very fortunate and honored to be the go-to voice for so many of you. Many thanks indeed!

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Barn Owl

Avian Bloopers. Digging through the Blooper Archives I came across the 1992 comedy, My Cousin Vinny, in which a Screech Owl played an important role. This is from the movie's trivia page at IMDB: "According to director Jonathan Lynn, the screech owl in the scene at the woods cabin was a real owl which had had a little prior training so that it wouldn't be frightened by the gun-fire noise. The screeches were added in afterward and were artificially induced, and the crew got it to open its mouth by giving it little pieces of beef; but its reaction to Vinny shooting the gun was authentic and needed only one take. 'We got amazingly lucky with that screech owl,' Lynn says on the DVD commentary."

I don't know what is meant by "artificially induced", but even without the backstory it's clear that the screeches were dubbed, because although the bird seen in the movie is indeed a screech owl (Otus asio- listen here), the voice is that of a Barn Owl (Tyto alba). I guess the problem was that they needed a bird that would wake a city slicker, but the bird with the screechy voice - the Barn Owl - is diurnal. Or they just needed an owl and an owl voice, and an owl is an owl, right?

Sigh. Wrong. With over 143 species of owls in the world, they just aren't interchangeable. Don't let this happen to you. If you are tottering on the brink of committing an avian blooper, call me!!! Or drop me a line.